


The Life and Times of Little!Tony and His Avengers Family

by radiowavemisfit



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Play, Age Regression/De-Aging, Angsty little Tony, Baby!Tony, Bed-Wetting, Birthday Party, Birthday Presents, Caretaker!Steve, Cuddles, Daddy!Steve, Diapers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hugs, Little Headspace, Little!Tony, Little/Daddy Dynamics, Non-Sexual Age Play, Non-Sexual Age Regression, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pacifiers, Pants wetting, Papa!Bucky, Team as Family, Teddy Bears, Thumb-sucking, Wetting, blowing raspberries, bottles, little!Clint, music box, non-sexual infantilism, there isn't necessarily a continuity from one oneshot to another
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 04:22:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5953438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radiowavemisfit/pseuds/radiowavemisfit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of one-shots featuring Little!Tony and his Avengers family, written from reader-sent prompts!</p><p>  <a href="http://noootheghouls.tumblr.com/ask">Prompt me</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Steve Rogers, Please Report to the Security Desk to Collect Your Little

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to start a collection of Little!Tony (and maybe Little!Clint) one-shots written from prompts and requests people send ^_^
> 
> Prompt from [james](archiveofourown.com/users/james) : _Tony’s out someplace with someone and gets separated from them. He wants his adult, but he also doesn’t want anyone to know he’s little. But he’s *lost.*_

If he really wanted to, Tony could blame this all on Pepper. She could have anything she ever wanted delivered right to their front door at the tower, but she always insisted on going to the store herself to get whatever she needed. She said it gave her some sense of normality, which yeah, Tony could understand where she was coming from with that. Sometimes some of the team would join her on her outings, usually when she went to the mall, and Tony was no exception. Today, it was Pepper, Tony, and Steve making the trip, mostly to just browse through the clothing racks, and Steve said something about wanting to find a new pair of running shoes. Tony was only coming along because he’d spent the last three days cooped up in his workshop, and he needed to step away from his work to clear his head.

All that morning, Tony had been teetering on the edge of his headspace, and he hoped the distraction of shopping would keep it at bay. He had too much work to get done to be worrying about being little.

As soon as they entered the mall, Pepper was off. The three of them had agreed to meet at the food court in about an hour and a half, so until then Pepper was going to be taking every store by storm. Being the CEO of a company as big as Stark Industries gave her an excuse to spend a little extra on her wardrobe, she needed to look professional after all.

Since Tony didn’t have anything he was shopping for, he just trailed behind Steve as he milled about. They talked a bit about nothing in particular, and Tony distracted himself by fiddling with his phone while they walked. He’d offer his opinions on the different pairs of sneakers Steve was trying on, but for the most part he was uncharacteristically quiet as he thought about the issues with the suit that were waiting for him back at the tower. And he was fighting off his headspace, which didn’t exactly put him in a chatty mood.

They left the store, Steve with a new pair of navy blue sneakers in a shopping bag, and Tony followed behind him. His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see a text from Bruce asking where he’d left the data sheets they were using for a project together. Tony stopped, closing his eyes as he racked his brain trying to figure out where he’d put them, and then texted back that they were in one of the drawers at his desk. When he looked up from his phone, Steve was gone. Now, had Tony been completely in the mind of an adult, this wouldn’t have been a problem. But the whole time they’d been in and out of the stores, he’d been in and out of one headspace and on the edge of the other. And now that he was separated from Steve? Yeah, he was a lost cause, and his little headspace swallowed him right up.

Tony glanced around nervously, looking for Steve’s blond hair poking out above the crowd around him. Damn, he didn’t realize until now just how crowded the mall was.  _ It’s a Saturday afternoon, of course it’s crowded. But that’s not what you should be thinking about right now, _ the adult-Tony’s voice told him in the back of his mind. Someone bumped into his arm as they walked past, and Tony remembered that he was standing in the middle of the walkway. Surrounded by people. No, surrounded by  _ strangers _ .  _ With nobody he knew in sight. _ It would be laughable, how cliché the situation was if he wasn’t so terrified (He was a little boy, lost in a mall, and he couldn’t find his daddy. Seriously?) His body went on autopilot, because there’s was no way he was thinking clearly at this point, and he walked along with the crowd until he could step off into a little area with no foot-traffic.

Tony ran his hands through his hair. He knew his daddy probably wouldn’t even be looking for him, because he didn’t know that he  _ was _ a daddy right now. Tony didn’t tell Steve (or anybody, for that matter) that he was skirting around the edge of his headspace. Had Steve known that there was even the slightest chance that Tony could be little, he never would’ve taken his eyes off of him. But as far as Steve knew, Tony was a grownup who probably went off on his own to do some shopping and that he’d just meet up with him later like they’d agreed.  _ What was he supposed to do? _ It’s not like he could just find the security office and have them find Steve for him. He could only imagine that announcement.  _ Steve Rogers, please report to the security office immediately to collect your forty-five year old little boy. _ Yeah, absolutely not. He was better off trying to find Steve on his own, even while as young as he was feeling right now.

When his phone buzzed in his hand with another text from Bruce, Tony was ready to slap himself for not seeing the  _ obvious _ solution to his problem that was right in front of him. He had a phone. Steve had a phone. He was just glad he could blame it on his headspace that he hadn’t figured that out sooner.

He dialed Steve’s number (Tony knew it by heart) and he waited impatiently for him to pick up, but the ringback kept going and going, until Steve’s voicemail answered instead. Disheartened, Tony quickly sent him a text.  _ Where are you? I need you. _ He stared daggers at his phone, waiting for it to buzz with a response from Steve saying he was coming to get him right now. He was fighting off the urge to slip his thumb into his mouth and find a quiet corner to curl up in until his daddy came for him, he just felt so scared and alone, and he could feel the tears threatening to flood his eyes any second now. He settled for chewing at his fingernails and pacing back and forth anxiously, which he guessed was better than nothing.  _ Finally _ , his phone went off, and Steve had answered.

_ I’m on my way to the food court. _ The food court was on the lower level of the mall, on the complete other side from where Tony was. Tony redialed Steve’s number, and this time he picked up. “Hey, what’s up?”

Tony whimpered his response so quietly that he didn’t know if Steve would even be able to hear him above the noise from the crowded mall, “Daddy.”

Thank god for Steve’s super-soldier hearing. “Baby, are you still near the shoe store?” Steve could go into daddy-mode just as quickly as Tony could become his baby.

“Yeah.”

“Okay honey, stay there, alright?”

“‘kay.”

“Do you want me to stay on the phone with you?”

Tony’s daddy was so smart. “Yeah.”

“Alright baby, I’m so proud of you for calling me, you did such a good job.” Steve praised. He did most of the talking, his voice was enough to help Tony calm down and keep from getting worked up about being all by himself. Tony stood facing the wall, not wanting anyone to recognize him and ask for an autograph or a picture, he definitely wasn’t in the right mind for any of that. That’s why he never  _ ever _ left the safety of the tower when he was feeling little, and he was ready to fight his headspace off if it started creeping up on him while he was already out. Today he must’ve had a lapse of judgement or something, he wasn’t thinking clearly after being locked away in his workshop for so long. No, he was never letting this happen ever again.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he spun around to see Steve standing there smiling warmly. Oh how badly Tony wanted Steve to just scoop him up in his arms and hold him, but he knew that they couldn’t do that in the middle of the mall. He did allow himself to lean into Steve’s touch, nuzzling up as close to Steve’s side as he could without it being ‘questionable’.

“Daddy,” Tony said quietly, more to himself as a reassurance that yes, his daddy was here now and he wasn’t alone anymore.

“Hey honey. I’m so sorry I lost you, I didn’t know you were little,” Steve cooed.

“S’okay.” Tony rested his head on Steve’s shoulder.

Steve pressed a careful and quick kiss into Tony’s hair. “Let’s go find Pepper and we can go home, okay? Maybe we can get an ice cream at the food court before we go, what do you say?”

Tony smiled and nodded. It didn’t matter much to him what they did now, he was just happy that he had his daddy back.


	2. So Good to See You Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from Anonymous: _Can you do an Avenger's NSAP with Tony teetering on edge all day until he kinda hurts himself (something tiny honestly) that just sends him into his little side and he's just really weepy? Oh, and accidents? And Steve is kinda like, "Why didn't you tell me?" But Tony doesn't want to answer so Steve's like, "fine, but we're going to talk about it later young man" and they play a cute game like peekaboo or Steve blows raspberries on Tony's tummy ^~^_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This prompt was so cute! I spent almost all day hunched over my laptop working on it, so I hope everyone likes it ^_^ (Little Tony is super angsty and need infinite hugs)

Tony had kept himself locked away in his workshop all day, just in case the scales tipped in favor of his little side. Throughout the day he found himself bringing his hand up to his mouth without thinking about it, and wanting to play games with Dum-E instead of doing boring work on the suit. He was fighting it with all the focus he had, but sometimes it just happened anyway and he didn’t really want to be around anybody if he did slip. It seemed like everyone had been badgering him about it lately, asking him if he needed to be little, or not-so-subtly babying him when he wasn’t even in his headspace. He appreciated that they cared, he really did, but when you’ve got the mindset of an adult and people are treating you like you’re a baby, it’s more than a little frustrating. Especially when you’re already  _ so close _ to being little, but you’ve just got too much to do and you really need to be an adult to get everything done, and all of that extra attention is just nudging you closer and closer to your headspace.

It took some coaxing from JARVIS, but eventually Tony stopped ignoring Steve’s text asking if was going to be joining the rest of the team for dinner on the communal floor. He wiped the grease off of his hands on an old rag and tossed it on his desk. He really,  _ really _ did not want to go, but maybe if he made it through the meal without slipping, the others would leave him alone about being little. They would see that Tony was an adult and didn’t need to be coddled right now, thanks. “Keep my programs running, JARVIS. I won’t be long.” If JARVIS had eyes that he could roll, he would.

\---------

Everyone was looking expectantly when the elevator doors opened and Tony stepped out, like they were surprised that he’d shown up. Which, to be fair, nobody was expecting to actually see him that evening; nobody had even  _ heard _ from him since the previous afternoon.

“Hey Tony,” Steve said, smiling.  _ Oh great, he was using his cautious voice. The soft, warm one he used when he didn’t know which headspace Tony was in. _

Tony took the empty seat next to Steve. “Hey, Cap,” he said back, and if he sounded blunt- good. He was a grownup, and sometimes grownups were blunt when they had other things they should be doing, like working on their Iron Man suit in their workshop  _ alone _ .

Grownups could be petty sometimes, too.

“I’m glad you decided to come eat with us.” Steve’s voice was still the same, and Tony would’ve pouted at his unwavering tone if he weren’t a grownup right now. Grownups don’t pout. “Bruce made lasagna.”

As if on cue, Bruce carried a dish of steaming lasagna to the table with his hands in oven mitts. “I’ve never made it before, so I hope it came out right.” Bruce smiled. He put the oven mitts on the counter and sat down at the table, and everyone got themselves a helping. Bruce was the best cook out of everyone on the team, so he did most of the cooking when they all had a meal together, and he knew from experience it was always a good idea to (at least) double the recipe of whatever he was making to feed the team’s collective appetite. Thus, the dishes and pans he had to use to fit all of that food were on the larger size, and this dish of lasagna took up the middle of the table. Enough for dinner, and leftovers for the next day.

“Bruce, this is delicious,” Clint said through a mouthful of food, earning an elbow to the ribs from Natasha. Tony had to agree, it  _ was _ really good and he was glad he decided to come up for dinner afterall. He couldn’t help himself from looking down at his plate and fork and thinking just how much yummier the lasagna would taste if Steve was feeding it to him instead. Food was  _ always _ better when daddy was holding the fork.  _ No, stop it. Stop it now. Don’t think about that, don’t think about daddy. You don’t have time to be little, you’ve got way too much to be worrying about. _ Tony did his best to push those thoughts to the back of his mind as he reached for the container of grated cheese in the middle of the table. But he wasn’t paying attention, he was focused on ignoring his little thoughts, and he knocked the container over. He quickly snapped out of his thoughts, rushing to try to grab the container before the cheese could spill on the table, and his hand brushed against the still-hot pan of food. Had he not suddenly been in complete distress, Tony might’ve been ashamed at just how little it sometimes took to set him off. The entire table immediately fell silent as Tony let out a whine and tears began welling up in his eyes. He sat there frozen with his hand stuck in mid-air where he’d pulled it away from the dish.

“Tony?” Steve said oh so carefully, and Tony just shook his head, willing the tears to stay where they were and not start spilling out. Steve slowly reached out for Tony’s hand. “Can I see it?” Tony sniffled and shakily nodded his head, and he felt tears beginning to slip down his cheeks. Steve took Tony’s hand and looked over it where it had touched the dish. Tony looked too, expecting the worst, but he saw that it had only left a light pink mark on the side of his hand. It wasn’t even a bad burn, but Tony was so very little now and it felt like the end of the world. And there was only one thing that could fix the end of the world. Steve brought Tony’s hand up to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss on the burn. “It’s okay, you’re okay.” He said in a soothing voice.  _ But it wasn’t okay. _ Tony shook his head, shutting his eyes tight. “No?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“ _ No. _ ”

“Tony.” There was the daddy voice. “Honey, what’s wrong? Your hand’s okay, I promise.” Tony responded by crying harder. Steve sighed and without a second thought he gathered Tony into his arms, excusing them both from the table. He carried the baby into the living room and sat him down on the couch, kneeling in front of him so they were at the same level. “You know how important it is that you tell me or one of the others if you start feeling little. It’s not good for you to try to ignore it, or for you to wait until you’re already little to find someone. Why didn’t you come get me?” Tony refused to meet Steve’s eyes, instead staring at the floor while his entire body trembled as he tried to hold in his sobs. He didn’t want to admit that he needed to be little, because what he  _ really _ needed was to be big so he could take care of all of his grownup responsibilities. But it was obvious that that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon, and it was so frustrating. “Alright, we can talk about this later, when you’re big. It’s okay.” He pulled Tony into a hug. “Come on, baby.” Tony nuzzled his face into the crook of Steve’s neck, melting into the hug. Suddenly Tony’s tummy rumbled; he hadn’t gotten to eat very much of his dinner before the incident, and he hadn’t eaten anything of substance since the night before. “Do you wanna go finish your dinner, honey? And then you can have a bottle before bed too if you want.” Tony pulled away and nodded slowly, wiping his running nose on his sleeve.

Steve carried Tony back into the kitchen once his sobbing had gotten under control and he was left sniffling quietly. He sat down in his chair, keeping Tony on his lap. The conversation going on at the table continued, nobody wanting to put any extra attention on Tony that could make him even more upset. Steve took Tony’s plate of lasagna from the spot where Tony had been sitting and placed it next to his own half-filled plate. He alternated between feeding himself and feeding Tony. He would offer a forkful of food Tony, and he would accept it with his mouth open like a baby bird, and then he’d go back to leaning his head on Steve’s chest while he chewed slowly.

Tony tried hanging on, but before he could finish eating, his eyelids grew heavy, and they only became heavier as the minutes passed. Soon enough, he was sound asleep, still curled up in Steve’s arms. Steve did his best to finish eating his own meal without moving Tony around too much. He knew how sleepy his baby got when he cried, it always took the energy right out of him. The others all told Steve to not worry about it when they got up and started clearing away the dishes and leftover food, and Steve appreciated it because as much as he wanted to help clean up, he wanted to let Tony keep sleeping even more. His baby deserved to rest.

Steve looked down at Tony sleeping peacefully. His thumb had found its way into his mouth at some point and he just looked so content that Steve couldn’t help but smile. His grin faltered, though, when he suddenly felt something warm on his thighs, and he didn’t even have to look to know what had happened. Without meaning to, Steve shifted just enough that Tony felt the movement and he was pulled from his sleep.

In only seconds Tony’s tears had started up all over again, because he was still so sleepy and he’d been woken up, and he knew right away that he’d wet himself, and that  _ always _ made him upset. He buried his face into Steve’s chest as his shoulders began trembling. Steve rubbed Tony’s back, holding him close and quietly shushing him.

“Aw, baby it’s alright.”

Clint turned to see what the commotion was, and he frowned sympathetically. “With all those tears, I didn’t think you had anything left in you Tony.” He meant it as a joke, he was just trying to lighten the mood a little and maybe even get Tony to smile, but the way Natasha was shaking her head at him told him that it probably wasn’t the best time.

“Let’s go get you cleaned up, honey,” Steve told Tony in a soft and comforting voice. He carried his baby out of the kitchen and took the elevator up to his floor. He took special care getting Tony nice and clean, and he dressed him in a diaper and his favorite jammies. He wanted his baby to be comfortable after such a rough and teary day (He got himself changed into something comfy too, a clean t-shirt and pair of sweatpants.) Steve put Tony down on the bed and went to fix him a bottle. Tony laid there quietly, curled in on himself while he sucked on his thumb. He couldn’t wait for his daddy to come back so he could have his bottle and go to sleep, and he could put this day behind him.

When Steve returned to the bedroom, he had Tony’s favorite teddy bear, Cookie, tucked under his arm, and that was enough to get Tony to crack the tiniest smile. Tony hugged the bear to his chest while Steve held the bottle to his lips. He was leaning against his daddy’s chest, and his daddy was leaning against the headboard on the bed, and for the first time that day everything felt okay.

Steve had an arm behind Tony’s shoulders, holding the bottle with one hand, and with the other he was rubbing little circles on Tony’s tummy. A little more than halfway through the milk, he stopped his hand mid-rotation and made an interested humming sound. Tony looked up at him curiously. Steve gently took the bottle from Tony’s mouth and he sat up, setting the bottle on the nightstand and having Tony lay up against the pillows.

“Now what’s this?” Steve asked quietly, like he was thinking out loud. “I think I need to investigate, let’s see what we’ve got here.” Steve pulled them bottom of Tony’s pajama shirt up to his chest. Tony scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion as he watched his daddy lean down, close to his tummy. He was about to ask him what he was doing when Steve blew a little raspberry right above Tony’s belly button.

“Daddy!” Tony squealed, kicking his legs and squirming around.

“I think I figured it out, someone’s got raspberries  _ all over _ his tummy,” Steve told him, before blowing another one. Tony couldn’t have held back his giggles even if he’d wanted to as he buried his face in his teddy bear. His daddy was being so silly! He blew raspberries all around on his stomach, making Tony laugh harder than he could remember laughing in quite some time. After a few minutes Steve sat back up and pulled Tony’s shirt back down, while Tony tried to catch his breath. He’d stopped giggling, but he still had a bright smile spread across his face. “There we go, honey,” Steve praised. “There’s my happy little boy. It’s so good to see you smile.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon, I hope you liked it!  
> Comments are always appreciated, let me know what you thought! And feel free to [send me an Avengers NSAP prompt](http://noootheghouls.tumblr.com/ask) if you have something you'd like to request ^_^


	3. Happy Birthday, Tony!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from [james](http://archiveofourown.org/users/james): _If you want a prompt, how about Little!Tony getting some presents from his family? A little birthday party or the like_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much love to my super swell internet friend for brainstorming ideas for this with me! ^_^

Tony knew that he had to be the luckiest person in the whole world. Not only did he get to have a big birthday party with all of his friends, but his family threw him a party while he was little too! They surprised him by decorating the living room and dining room on the communal floor with colorful streamers and balloons, and they even got him his very own cupcake. His daddy tried very hard to be careful when he was feeding it to him, but Tony still ended up with red and yellow frosting on his cheeks. Everyone thought it was so very silly, especially when Tony went cross-eyed to try to see the frosting that had gotten on the tip of his nose. His daddy waited until Tony had finished the whole cupcake before he went to work cleaning him up, he knew that Tony would just get even messier.

Once Tony was nice and clean, Steve asked if he wanted to open his presents.  _ Of course _ Tony wanted to, so everyone took their presents from the table and gathered in the living room. They all sat on the chairs and couches, and Tony sat criss-cross on the floor in front of them, while his daddy sat next to him.

“Open mine first Tony!” Clint said excitedly, handing him the messily-wrapped gift. The excitement of Tony’s birthday party had Clint drifting into his headspace. “I picked it out, and my daddy let me wrap it.” Tony grinned and tore open the paper. Inside was a plastic package containing a pacifier that had little stars decorating the shield. “It glows in the dark!” Clint explained. Tony looked at the pacifier with an awestruck face, and he held it out to Steve.

“Open?”

Steve smiled and opened up the packaging, taking the pacifier out. He cupped it in his hands, leaving a little gap between his thumbs so Tony could see the way the stars and the plastic ring on the pacifier were glowing green. Steve opened his hands and held the pacifier on his palm, and Tony took it and moved to put it in his mouth, but his daddy stopped him before he could.

“Oh, sweetheart, we should clean it first.” When Tony looked at him with his puppy-dog eyes, Steve sighed and got up to go wash it. While he was in the kitchen, Tony gave Clint the biggest, tightest hug he could, earning a collective ‘awww’ from all the grownups. Steve returned to the living room and held the pacifier for Tony to take as he sat back down on the floor. Seeing just how adorable Tony looked with the new pacifier bobbing in his mouth, Phil was glad that Clint had practically begged to get it for him. Steve was happy too, because hopefully it would be a lot harder to lose a paci that could glow in the dark.

“Here Tony,” Bruce spoke up, bringing his present up and handing it to Tony. Tony ran his fingers over the shimmery red paper that Bruce had used to wrap the gift, admiring it, before opening it. Beneath was a cardboard clothing box that Steve helped him to get the lid off of. Tony dug through the tissue paper until his fingers brushed against something soft. He pulled out a pair of fleecy footie pajamas that were made to look like the Iron Man suit, and a little gift tag fell out. The tag read  _ ‘So you can be a hero, even when you’re little,’ _ written in Bruce’s scrawling handwriting. Tony blushed, looking at Bruce with a bright smile.

“Thank you Bruce,” Tony said softly, rubbing the fabric of the pajamas between his thumb and his index finger.

Bruce smiled warmly. “You’re welcome, kiddo.”

Steve took the pajamas and folded them, setting them aside, and clearing the wrapping paper and box from in front of Tony.

“Alright, I guess that means it’s my turn,” Natasha said, getting up from the couch and bringing Tony her present, in a gift bag decorated with little cartoon robots. Tony took the bad and found that it was a bit heavier than he’d thought it would be.

He pulled out the tissue paper, letting it fall to the floor around him. Sitting in the bottom of the bag was a wooden box. Steve helped Tony take it out of the bag, and the little ran his fingers over the polished wood. It was very fancy, with an ornate swirling pattern carved into the top, but Tony thought it looked an awful lot like...jewelry box? Did Natasha get him a jewelry box? Why would she pick that out for him? He didn’t wear jewelry. And it looked like those jewelry boxes that have the little ballerina that spins around when you open it. Those were for  _ girls. _

But Tony’s daddy taught him to be polite, and to always say please and thank you, so that’s what he would do. “Thank you, Tasha,” he said from behind his pacifier, trying his best to keep the disappointment out of his voice. Of course he still appreciated the gift, he’d love anything his family got for him just because it came from them, but he can’t say that he’d really been  _ hoping _ to get a ballerina jewelry box.

Natasha was a spy. It was pretty much in her job description to be able to tell when people weren’t telling the truth. She knelt down in front of the little boy. “Tony, it’s alright if you don’t like it.” She held her hands out, and Tony handed it to her slowly, feeling guilty. “I can just take it back to the store.” Natasha traced over the designs with her finger, turning the box in her hands. With a smirk, she lifted the lid.

The inside of the music box was like any other with a mirror on the lid and space to hold trinkets, but instead of the ballerina that Tony had been expecting, a little rocket ship popped up, with tiny stars and planets suspended on strings. The box began playing a music box version of  _ You Are My Sunshine _ as the rocket turned in a circle, and Tony was instantly mesmerized. He stared at it with shining brown eyes the size of saucers, not blinking. After a few seconds, Natasha closed the box, and Tony blinked. “I’ll see if I can exchange it for something else.”

“No!” Tony objected, the pacifier falling out of his mouth as he reached for the box. Natasha held it away for a second as Tony made grabby hands. “Please Tasha?”

Natasha tapped her chin thoughtfully and hummed, pretending that she was trying to make a decision. “I guess you can keep it, I mean, if you really want to.” She placed the music box into Tony’s hands and he held it down in his lap.

“Thank you,” Tony said, rushing out the words and he carefully lifted the top of the box. The music started playing again, and it was like a switch flipped and Tony couldn’t pull himself away from watching the stars and planets spinning slowly.

Natasha winked at Steve. “This was meant to be a gift for both of you.”

“Thank you,  Natasha.” Steve smiled. “Thank you to all of you guys.” He reached and pushed the lid down on the box, gently nudging Tony’s side to get his attention.

He blinked and looked up. “Thank you,” he chirped, grinning widely. The response was a collective mixture of ‘you’re welcome, kiddo’ and ‘happy birthday, Tony’.

Later on, while the grownups all gathered in the kitchen for coffee, Tony and Clint stayed in the living room, laying on their bellies on the floor next to each other with the music box playing in front of them. Neither boy made a sound as they watched the spinning rocket, both entranced with awe-filled eyes, and Tony’s new pacifier was back bobbing rhythmically in his mouth.

\---------

That night, after everyone had gone back to their floors, Tony was snuggled up in bed in his new jammies, waiting for his daddy to come lay down beside him. But when Steve came back into the bedroom, he had a box topped with a big red bow in his hands.

“Hey honey, what do you think about opening one more present before bed?” Steve asked, smiling warmly. Tony immediately sat right up and nodded eagerly. Steve sat down next to him and set the present down between them. He helped Tony untie the ribbon and tear away the paper. Inside the box was a soft, fleecy blanket all folded up. Steve took the blanket and spread it out on the bed that Tony could see it. It was a dark blue throw-blanket with a picture of Captain America’s shield in the middle. Tony smiled at it and he gathered it up into his arms, cuddling it close to his chest, because it was  _ perfect. _ He nuzzled his face against the soft fabric, and right away he noticed that the blanket smelled just like his daddy. Tony’s mouth fell open into a big round ‘o’-shape as he looked at his daddy. “I thought it’d be nice for you to have, if I ever can’t be here when you need me,” Steve explained, ruffling Tony’s hair playfully. The blanket had been his own idea, but JARVIS had made the suggestion that he sleep with it himself for a few nights so that his cologne and his natural scent would stay with it. Steve took the blanket from Tony and lovingly wrapped it around the baby’s shoulders, giving him a kiss on the forehead as he did.

Tony knew that he  _ definitely _ had to be the luckiest person in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh that was so much fun to write, thank you [james](http://archiveofourown.org/users/james) for the prompt! Comments are always appreciated, let me know what you thought!  
> [Send me a prompt](http://noootheghouls.tumblr.com/ask) if you have an Avengers NSAP you'd like to request! ^_^  
> [This](http://g01.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1BHAXKpXXXXc9XVXXq6xXFXXXj/Little-Star-Taiwan-retro-maple-wood-music-box-music-box-to-send-children-to-creative-novelty.jpg) is was what inspired the design on the music box~


	4. Every Little Boy Needs a Bear to Call His Own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from Anonymous: _hi! For the little!tony AU prompt thing, i’d love to read something with tony picking out a plushie?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This prompt was sososo sweet, and I decided to use it as a way of telling the origin story of little!Tony's most favorite (and, evidently, first-ever) stuffed animal, Cookie! I hope you enjoy!

There was one thing that Steve noticed at the start of his age playing with Tony that bothered him to no end- Tony was a very little boy who did not have a single stuffed animal. Not one. Did he have plastic toy cars, soft blankets, more pacifiers than one little could ever possibly need? Yes, absolutely. But no stuffed toys.

Tony tried to play it off, saying that he never had stuffed toys when he was a kid. Maybe when he was just a baby, but nothing that lasted long enough for him to remember, and certainly nothing that he’d stowed away for sentimental reason that could pull from storage.

And according to Steve, this was a problem.

Honestly, for as long as Tony had been playing, he would’ve loved having a stuffed animal he could call his very own, but he could never work up the courage to get one. In his own defense, he explained to Steve that all of his toys and pacifiers had been purchased online, and a stuffed animal just didn’t seem like something you could just order off of a computer. It needed to be just right; nice and soft and perfectly huggable, and the only way to judge if it’s good enough is by seeing it in person, holding it and making sure it fits perfectly in your arms. Sure, Tony had bought himself probably half a dozen fleecy blankets over the years that were used exclusively for playing, but that was different; you didn’t have to justify buying yourself a cozy blanket, not like you would if it were a stuffed bear or bunny (Steve argued that Tony was being melodramatic and he highly doubted that anyone would care enough to question it, but Tony didn’t budge with his point of view.)

“Do you want one?”

_ What kind of a question is that? Of course he wants one. _ “I dunno.” Tony cast his gaze anywhere that wasn’t meeting Steve’s eyes.

“Tony I’m being serious, do you want a stuffed animal?”

“Why do you care so much?” Tony couldn’t help but wince, that had come out sounding biting and scathing and that wasn’t his intention at all. “It doesn’t seem like a big deal, nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

If Steve had been trying to mask his sadness, he wasn’t doing a very good job. “I know you’re not little right now, and I’m Steve and not ‘daddy,’ but that doesn’t mean that I stop caring about you as soon as you age back up. I just know that having a stuffed animal is usually a pretty special thing for a kid. If you don’t want one, that’s fine, I’m not trying to force you to do or have anything that you’re not comfortable with, but what I’m saying it that if you  _ do _ want to have one, you can. You can want  _ one, _ you can want  _ seventeen, _ you can want none at all- it’s okay.”

Tony pondered this for a moment. The idea of having something soft to hold on to while he slept was a nice one, though it was a bit of a foreign concept, having a comfort item of his very own. But Steve seemed to think it was a good idea, and Steve was usually right about most things, really.

“I do,” Tony said finally. “I do want one.”

An ear-to-ear grin split Steve’s face. “Awesome, let’s go get you one then,” he said, taking Tony’s hand and pulling him toward the elevator.

“Woah, right now?”

“Sure, why not? I thought we could go grab some lunch somewhere and then go to the store. I looked it up, and this toy store that was around when  _ I _ was a kid, it’s still there, in Brooklyn.”

Tony dug his heels into the tile floor, grounding himself. “Wait you’ve had this whole thing planned out?” He asked in disbelief.

“What, I’m not allowed to get excited about this kinda thing?” Steve crossed his arms, dropping Tony’s hand.

“I didn’t say that, I’m just...surprised, is all. But then again, this just screams something you would do.”

Steve shrugged. “I’m going to take that as a compliment. Now let’s go, there’s a car waiting for us outside.”

Tony blinked, then shook his head and followed behind Steve into the elevator.  _ Of course Steve had a car waiting. _

The car took them into Brooklyn, and dropped them off as a pizzeria. Nothing fancy, but Steve always insisted that Brooklyn had the best pizza in all of New York, and Tony was never one to argue about getting pizza. Steve told the driver that they would be able to walk to the store (Tony made it clear that nobody could know that they were going to a toy store) and that he’d let him know when to pick them up. As they progressed through their meal, Tony started getting butterflies and his leg was bouncing anxiously beneath the table. He told himself that it was stupid to be feeling nervous about  _ this _ , of all things, but maybe the uneasy feeling in his stomach was from excitement instead of nerves? He would never admit it, at least not when he wasn’t little, just how much it meant to him that Steve cared so much.

The area of Brooklyn that they were in was quaint, a nice little neighborhood with a corner store and fire escapes with colorful planter boxes coming off of the sides of apartment buildings. It was a quick walk from the pizzeria to the toy store, only one street over. The store was easy to overlook, it was a little hole-in-the-wall type shoppe, with a weathered wooden sign hanging above the door.

The inside of the store had an atmosphere all its own, and it made you feel welcome and warm. It was almost exactly as Steve remembered it being when he was a kid, though he’d never bought anything, but he’d liked looking around with Bucky and chattering about what they wish they could’ve bought.

There weren’t any customers browsing around, which made sense considering that it was just past noon on a weekday. There were only two people inside the shoppe when Steve and Tony entered, a man with a friendly smile and greying hair standing behind the register, and a younger woman sweeping the wooden floor.

“Good afternoon,” the man greeted, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he smiled.

Steve return the smile, nodding to each worker in turn. “Afternoon sir, ma’am.” Tony, suddenly feeling shy and self-conscious, gave them each a small wave and not-so-subtly shuffled so he was hiding behind Steve.

Steve and Tony walked through the store, passing wooden train sets and bottles of bubble soap, to the back where there was a shelf lined with stuffed animals of all different species. It seemed that with each step the pair took through the store, past the shelves and racks of toys, Tony’s headspace was tugging at the edges of his mind, and when they stopped in front of the stuffed animals, he was unconsciously gnawing away at his fingernails, a tell-tale sign that was feeling just the  _ slightest bit _ little.

“What do you think?” Steve asked. “Anything catching your eye?” Tony hummed thoughtfully and took a step closer to the shelf. He reached out tentatively, giving Steve a quick nervous glance, and ran his fingers across a few of the toys. That was when Steve noticed that Tony had gotten a very focused look on his face, and he couldn’t help but smile. Even when Tony wasn’t fully little, he was still the cutest thing.

Tony suddenly stopped in the middle of his browsing, his hand lingering on one particular stuffed animal. Steve picked the toy up from the shelf and held it out to Tony. It was an off-white teddy bear, but it wasn’t covered in fake fur like most of the other stuffed animals on the shelf. It was made from a soft terry cloth fabric, with a black plastic nose and dark marble eyes. Tony took one of its ears between his fingers and rubbed at it, a small half-smile curling the corner of his mouth.

“I like this one,” Tony said in a soft voice, looking up at Steve with bright eyes.

Steve gave Tony a wide grin, placing the stuffed bear into his hands. “I think that’s a great choice.” He reached out and flipped over the little square tag attached to the bear’s ear, reading what it said aloud. “ _ Hi there! My name is Cookie, and I love warm, cozy hugs. I can’t wait to play, and have so many fun adventures with you!” _

Tony ducked his head, a light blush heating up his cheeks. Steve pulled Tony into his side and pressed a quick kiss into the top of Tony’s head.

“Make that a perfect choice; a teddy bear that loves hugs, and a little boy who gives the  _ best _ hugs.” Tony whined and gave Steve’s side a gentle shove with his elbow, but he couldn’t keep from leaning his head into Steve’s shoulder. “Are you ready to go up to the register?”

At that, Tony’s eyes went wide and his face paled. “What are we supposed to say though?”

Steve looked at Tony with a raised eyebrow. “We could try saying, ‘ _ Hi, we’d like to buy this bear please.’ _ Y’know, just a thought.”

“No,” Tony shook his head, moving to put the bear back on the shelf. “No this was a bad idea, they’ll know it’s for me, they’ll just know and I’d rather they didn’t.”

Steve intercepted the bear and took his from Tony’s hands before he could put it down. “Hey,” he said in a firm but gentle tone. “It’ll be fine, I’ll do the talking if you want, you can just stand there and look pretty.” Tony crossed his arms and pouted, but he didn’t argue. Steve clapped him on the shoulder before turning and walking toward the register in the front of the store, with Tony trailing behind him.

“Oh, I see you found yourselves a new friend,” the man at the register said with a smile. The nametag pinned to his shirt read  _ Michael _ .

“We did, it’s for a little boy I take care of. He really wanted a bear, so I thought it’d be nice to pick one out for him.” Steve explained as he set it down on the counter.

“Well I’m sure that little boy’s gonna love it,” Michael said. “That’ll be eight dollars.” 

Steve pulled a ten dollar bill from his wallet and handed it over. Michael slid the bear into a brown paper bag and handed it back to Steve with his change. Steve held the bag out to Tony, who snatched it away while staring down at his feet. He began nervously rolling the top of the bag closed as if he were trying to keep anybody from seeing what was inside.

Michael gave them a wave. “Have a good one, boys.”

“You too, sir, thank you,” Steve smiled at him and put his hand on the back of Tony’s arm.

“Thanks,” Tony said quickly before he was lead away, not wanting to be rude. The little bell on the door chimed as Steve opened it, letting Tony step out onto the sidewalk. As soon as the door closed, Tony did a quick scan of the area and once he saw that there wasn’t anybody around, he leaned into Steve’s side, the paper bag crinkling in his hands. “Thank you, Steve.”

“Anything for the little boy I take care of, right?” Steve smirked. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick message to their driver that they were ready to be picked up. They walked down the street to the corner store to wait, at Tony’s insistence so that nobody would figure out which store they’d actually come from.

Steve said nothing about the way Tony was holding the bag to his chest protectively, or about the way his eyelids were looking heavier and heavier by the minute.

Finally the car pulled up and they climbed into the backseat. They were separated from the driver by a blacked out glass partition, and their space was soundproof unless the partition was opened, so Steve didn’t see any harm in speaking out loud about Tony’s new friend that he’d already taken out of the bag.

“So you do you like it?”

Tony looked at him with the bright eyes of a boy much younger than his actual age, and nodded. “Love it.”

“Have you decided what you’re gonna name it?” Steve asked, putting his arm around Tony’s shoulders.

Tony furrowed his eyebrows. “But it’s name’s already Cookie.”

“Yeah, but you can give it a different name if you want.”

Tony looked at the bear, pondering this. I’m gonna keep it Cookie.”

“Well I think Cookie is a great name for your teddy.”

“Yeah,” Tony nodded into Steve’s shoulder, cuddling Cookie close to his chest. Steve ran his fingers through his now-little boy’s hair. He looked down to see that Tony’s eyes had slipped shut and his thumb was planted firmly into his mouth, and that fast he’d already drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Comments are always appreciated, let me know what you thought! If you'd like to prompt me for little!Tony, little!Clint, or anything really, you can message me on my [Tumblr](http://noootheghouls.tumblr.com/ask) :D


	5. Please, Papa?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt by Anon: _Prompt for little!tony with daddy!steve and papa!bucky where tony calls bucky papa for the first time and bucky freaks out because he doesn’t think he will be a good papa for the little? With a happy ending of course! thank you!!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi friends! I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, I'm sorry ^^' I gonna try my best to post more often though!

There was a pretty consistent bedtime ritual in place when Tony was little. After dinner, he’d sit on the couch with Steve and Bucky while they watched TV, and Steve would give Tony his evening bottle. Both the show they would watch and the bottle Tony was drinking were finished at around the same time as each other, as the clock was striking nine. Nine o’clock was a good bedtime for very little boys, so Steve would change Tony into a nice dry diaper and tuck him into bed with a pacifier and his favorite teddy bear cuddled up to his chest.

Bucky spent a lot of time with Steve, and by default that meant he spent a lot of time with Tony. Well, he spent a lot of time with little-Tony. Bucky wasn’t a caretaker per se, but Tony seemed to trust him enough to allow him to watch over him if Steve needed to step out of the room for whatever reason. He could change a diaper if he needed to, but he didn’t do nearly as much for Tony as Steve did. Steve was Tony’s daddy, afterall. Bucky was an uncle at most, or maybe a cousin. But like a third cousin.

Evidently, Tony thought of him as more than a third cousin.

“Alright baby boy,” Steve said in a soft voice as he sat Tony up and put the empty bottle on the coffee table. “Are you ready to go get changed and tucked in?” Tony was chewing on his bottom lip and he looked up at Steve with big eyes. He gestured for Steve to move his head closer, and he whispered something into Steve’s ear. His daddy looked down at him with a smile. “Yeah? You should ask him, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”

Tony looked over to Bucky, who was sitting at the other end of the couch. He suddenly felt very,  _ very _ shy, and he cast his gaze down to his lap. When he began fiddling with the hem of his daddy’s shirt, Steve realized that Tony would fall asleep right where he was before he’d be able to work up the courage to ask for himself.

“Hey, Buck,” Steve said. “Tony wants to know if you’d help me tuck him in tonight.”

Bucky blinked in surprise. That was something he’d never done before, and he was honestly a little shocked. Getting tucked into bed, sometimes reading a story, a goodnight kiss on the forehead- that was always something shared between Tony and Steve, and now Tony wanted him to take part too?

Tony looked up at Bucky cautiously, afraid that his request had upset him. “Please papa?” Tony’s voice was so small that Bucky almost thought that he’d misheard what Tony said. But no, if Steve’s look of awe was anything to go off of, he’d heard exactly right.

_ Papa. _

Bucky’s body went on autopilot, which was good because his mind was drawing a complete blank. His legs had him up off the couch and into the kitchen before he could even think about how he was supposed to respond to being called  _ papa. _

As soon as Bucky disappeared into the kitchen, Tony was looking up at Steve with big teary eyes. Immediately, Steve cradled Tony to his chest, shushing him gently, assuring him that he’d done nothing wrong. “Hey, it’s alright honey.” At least, he hoped it was alright? He certainly hadn’t expected Bucky to do... _ that _ . But he also hadn’t been expecting Tony to call Bucky papa. “How about we go get you ready for bed, and then I’ll talk to Bucky.” Tony sniffled and nodded, wrapping his arms around his daddy’s neck as Steve stood up. Steve carried his baby to the bedroom and made quick work of getting him changed and into a pair of soft and cozy pajamas. Tony insisted that he didn’t want to be tucked in yet, that he didn’t want to go to sleep until he knew that Bucky wasn’t mad at him, so Steve gave him his pacifier and his bear, and left him sitting in the middle of the bed while he went to talk to Bucky.

Bucky was pacing back and forth in the kitchen, wringing his hands, when Steve appeared in the doorway.

“Bucky, you okay?” Steve asked, his forehead creased with concern.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Bucky rubbed his hands down his face. “Okay no, I’m not fine at all.”

“What’s wrong?”

Bucky stopped pacing and leant back against the counter. “Tony called me papa, Steve.  _ Papa _ .”

“Tony trusts you-”

“ _ Steve, _ ” Bucky clenched his fists until the knuckles of his right hand turned white. “I can’t be Tony’s papa, I can’t be his caretaker.”

“You wouldn’t be his only caretaker though, I’d still be his daddy.”

“I’m not caretaker-material.”

Steve looked at Bucky with a raised eyebrow. “What are you talking about, you used to take care of me all the time.”

“ _ Not like this! _ Don’t get me wrong, you needed a helluva lot of help, but Tony, he’s a  _ baby _ . This is something else completely. And things are different now, with me. I’m not the same person I was when I was saving your ass all the time.” Bucky looked so defeated, having to admit that. He wasn’t what HYDRA had made him anymore, but he definitely wasn’t what he’d been back before all of that, not even close. He didn’t think he’d ever be anything close to what he once was.

“Well Tony obviously thinks you’re fit to be a caretaker for him, and that’s not something you should take lightly. He knows who you are, what you’ve been through, and he sees you as someone he can put his trust in. You know he’s had to have put a lot of thought into it, he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t mean it,” Steve said, holding his gaze on Bucky’s eyes.

“That’s what’s weird though, whatever it is that he sees in me that makes him want me to take care of him, I just don’t understand it. I don’t see it. Like you being his daddy, that makes sense. You’re just cut out for taking care of people, and I’m...me, I don’t know.”

Steve stepped forward and placed a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “Look Buck, I’m not trying to force you or guilt you into agreeing to this. If you don’t want to be Tony’s papa, or his caretaker, or anything more than a guy who happens to live in the same building as he does, there’s nothing wrong with that, and he’s going to understand, I promise. But no matter what, you’re going to have to talk to Tony about it, both when he’s little and big. I think that’s something important.”

Bucky nodded, running a hand through his hair and taking a deep breath. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess I should go talk to him then, before he falls asleep.”

Together they walked to the bedroom, and Steve had his arm around Bucky’s shoulders. When they got to the bedroom, Tony was still sitting where Steve had left him, though his eyelids were looking heavy and he was trying to keep his head from bobbing forward. Steve lingered in the doorway as Bucky slowly crossed the room and sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Hey there, kid.”

Tony hesitantly pulled his pacifier from his mouth, staring down at his lap. “’M sorry, Bucky.”

“Oh, Tony, you don’t have to be sorry for anything. That was all on me.” Bucky gave an apologetic look. “I just wasn’t sure if I could be a very good ca-, a very good  _ papa _ for you.”

Tony furrowed his eyebrows, making the most adorable confused face Bucky had ever seen. “How come?”

“Well you see, you’re a really special little boy, who deserves the best caretakers, like your daddy is. And I’ve never been anyone’s caretaker, so I don’t know if I’m any good at it.” Bucky gave Tony a sad smile. As far a little Tony needed to know, that was the only apprehension that Bucky had. He was sure that when Tony aged back up, he’d understand the true reasoning without him having to explain.

“Oh,” Tony said, feeling guilty that he’d even brought the whole thing up in the first place, seeing how obviously uneasy it had made Bucky.

“But,” Bucky said, and Tony’s eyes shined with the slightest tinge of hope, just for a second. “That doesn’t mean I can’t try being the best papa I can be, if you want me to.”

Tony’s voice was filled with awe, like he couldn’t believe it, and that nearly broke Bucky’s heart. “Really?”

“Of course. What do you say?”

Tony said nothing, but nodded, giving Bucky a shy smile as he cuddled his teddy bear close to his chest. Steve walked into the room and stood at the edge of the bed.

“Well baby boy, I think that as his first mission being your papa, he should help me get you tucked in, what do you think?” Tony nodded again, his face scrunching up as he let out a yawn. Bucky picked up the pacifier that laid forgotten on the bed beside Tony, and slipped it into the little’s mouth. Steve gathered Tony into his arms, lifting him off the mattress so that Bucky could pull back the covers to make space for the little boy. Steve plopped Tony down ever so gently, and Tony wiggled and squirmed until he found himself in a nice cozy spot, tucking his bear up under his chin. Steve and Bucky each took one side of the blanket and pulled it up, so Tony was covered all the way up to his shoulders. Tony felt like he had to be the luckiest boy in the whole world as his daddy leaned down and gave him a goodnight kiss on the cheek, and his papa gave him one on the forehead.

The caretakers each gave their ‘good night’s in soft voices, and left the room, turning out the light and leaving the door open just a crack, just how Tony liked it. Steve turned to Bucky and put a hand on his shoulder, and they shared a quiet moment, basking in the shared love they felt for  _ their _ little boy.

  
Steve would be sleeping in bed with Tony that night, and Bucky would be going off to the guest room he’d claimed as his own. But maybe one night soon, Tony hoped, he would get to spend the night with his daddy  _ and _ his papa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, and sorry it took so long!
> 
> Like I said, I'm gonna try to post more often! You can [prompt me](http://noootheghouls.tumblr.com/ask) on my Tumblr if you have a request for something you'd like to read, or if you just wanna say hi!
> 
> As always, comments are always very appreciated, let me know what you though! Hope y'all are having a super swell day, and I hope to be posting something else soon!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! Comments are always appreciated, let me know what you thought! And please feel free to [send me an Avengers NSAP prompt](http://noootheghouls.tumblr.com/ask) if you have a one-shot you'd like to request ^_^


End file.
